Expectations
Expectations
Sunday, 21 March 2010
As the Head of any school will tell you, one of the challenges of the job is dealing with the myriad of competing expectations that others have of you. It seems that everyone has firm ideas of what you should be doing (especially for them), and in some unfortunate cases, this may be accompanied by an inflated view of their relative importance in the Head’s long list of priorities. The reality is that most people are blissfully unaware of the extensive scope of a Head’s job and the vast range of conflicting expectations that may fall upon a Head’s shoulders.
In some ways, this is surprising. After all, everyone went to school, and for the majority of those who left school to enter any job other than teaching, teachers seemed to have a fairly easy job. After all, it all looked pretty simple and easy from the perspective a student’s seat in the classroom. Furthermore, face-to-face teaching time was seen to be much shorter than the normal working hours in any office, and the long summer holidays added to this perception that teachers must enjoy an easy life.
This perception of a light workload is, of course, over-simplistic to the point of complete inaccuracy. As is the case with a good author or a good public speaker, the bulk of a good teacher’s work is hidden from public view. The fruits of solid preparation and thorough marking tend to be assumed rather than acknowledged with gratitude by many people. The unfortunate consequence is that teachers’ work often goes unrecognised and underappreciated in the wider community.
Dare I say, the same principle operates at an even higher order of magnitude for school principals. The visible proportion of Heads’ work is even less evident to the casual observer than that of a class teacher, and the quantity of necessary but unseen work is much greater.
It is at this point that those conflicting expectations that I mentioned enter the equation. It is easy – and perhaps even obvious – that some people will become frustrated if a school principal is not fulfilling their particular expectations, especially if they are not really aware of the conflicting expectations being placed upon the same principal by others.
Heads of UWCs are expected (there’s that word again!) to attend at least one (and preferably several) regional meetings of National Committees each year (in addition to their own biannual meetings of course). These meetings with representatives of National Committees are important times to get to know the key personnel upon whom the Colleges rely for selecting students. In my case, it has also been a valuable time for resolving some financial misunderstandings, discussing some specific student welfare issues, planning future student intakes, exploring possibilities to help with establishing a new National Committee, and discussing various issues including the relationships between Committees and Colleges, improving selection procedures, applying the new UWC branding, and so on.
However, I arrived in Uruguay a day late for this important meeting. This was unfortunate, and it attracted some comments, but I do not regret it as it was the result of my choice to give priority to chairing the regular staff meeting at the College before I left. In this case of conflicting expectations, my priority was given to my staff.
Last week I was supposed to attend a meeting at Adriatic UWC in Italy to discuss UWC outreach, and especially the use of short courses to widen the impact of UWCs in the world. I chose not attend, even though I regard this as a very important area, because I was leading a group of students in China on Project Week. In this case of conflicting expectations, my priority was given to my students.
It is a risk to miss too many of these external UWC meetings. Last year I missed a meeting at Adriatic UWC to discuss fundraising because of other on-campus priorites, and most reports of that meeting now begin with a preface stating that “every United World College except for Li Po Chun UWC was represented at the meeting”. Needless to say, I did choose to attend the follow-up meeting on fundraising in Singapore in January this year!
Conflicting expectations can occur in many areas besides clashing meetings of course. They can arise, for example, when a parent (who might classify himself/herself as a ‘client’ in this context) expects the Head to over-ride a teacher’s decision on some matter that affects their child, whereas the teacher naturally expects the Head to support their decision, especially when the decision was made for the child’s benefit and in accordance with school policies and procedures. There is a myriad of other possible examples, and I am sure you get the point of what I am trying to say - even before we introduce the extensive expectations placed upon the Head by the government, board members, ex-students, not to mention one’s own family.
I should emphasise that I am not complaining about any of this – I am simply trying to sensitise others to the unseen pressures that often explain why a Head might make a seemingly curious decision with which others may not agree. The general public needs to understand that Heads of schools are almost never irrational (or rather, not nearly as irrational as they might appear to be!), but they are subject to a range of pressures and expectations that may not always be obvious, which in many cases may require that strict personal confidences be maintained.
It can be frustrating, but it is also an integral part of doing what I regard as the best job in the world!
On my way to the meeting in Uruguay I had a forced stopover in Santiago de Chile. This view shows part of the walls of the markets in that city.